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Yankees And Red Sox Open To Tempered Expectations

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 14: CC Sabathia #52 of the New York Yankees talks to teammate Derek Jeter #2 in the seventh inning after surrendering a three run home run the Boston Red Sox on May 14, 2011 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Lou Albruzzese, Eddie Lepore and Nick Bizzarro are 50-year Yankee fans from Newark, N.J. It’s opening day at Yankee Stadium, and they’re here, waiting in the sunshine outside Gate 4 for their fourth friend to show. But that doesn’t mean they’re happy.

“Old man George would be turning over in his grave,” says Nick, lamenting the team’s age, injuries, and sudden budget conciousness that George’s son Hal is running the team with. “This is the first itme in 25 years we can’t just go out and get the best players.” The three buddies aren’t ready to bury the Yankees before the 2013 season even gets started, but, yeah, something’s missing. “The mood is definitely different,” Lou says, dressed in his pinstriped jersey just the same.

Eddie is the most optimistic: “Still the greatest rivalty in sports, let’s wait ’til October.”

A short ways down the plaza, by Gate 6, Ab Quinlivan and his stepson Andrew, down from Boston and clad in Red Sox gear, were heading to the just-opened gate. “Well, San Francisco did it last year with good chemistry,that’s what Boston and New York have to hope for,” Quinlivan said with a smile and a shrug. And how is the Boston media back home viewing the season and this year’s version of the rivaly? “They’re thinking cellar dwellars, they’re playing it down,” he says.

Two hours before game time, things are fine on the surface. The field looks great, the day is nice, Robinson Cano and Ichiro Suzuki are raking in batting practice. Behind the cage, manager Joe Girardi, always a thorough competitor, watches intentently. Ace lefties CC Sabathis and Jon Lester will start. And old friend Lou Piniella is on hand to throw out the first pitch. Still, there’s no escaping the obvious about the rivalry that largley drove baseball in the early-to-mid 2000s. The Red Sox aren’t the same club they were a few years ago, and age and injuries are swallowing the Yankees. Five years ago at the old Yankee Stadium’s swansong All-Star Game, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were yucking it up together as they took turns moving in and out of the batting cage. Clearly, life was grand. Today, none of them are taking BP.

“You used to go into the clubhouse and see the same group in the same lockers, there was Manny, there was Ortiz,” says longtime Yankee broadcaster Suzyn Waldman, set to work another opener for CBS Radio. She says the Boston-New York rivavly is much tamer in recent years anyway – even the prime Manny/A-Rod years didn’t carry the kind of personal anmiosity of earlier eras, when rival catchers Thurman Munson and Carlton Fisk detested each other. Does the rivaly lose even more spark this year? Waldman lowers here voice a touch. “Sure,” she says.

Back outside, the buddies from Newark contemplate a new era for the Yankees. They wouldn’t particularly oppose a salary cap or more luxury taxes, figuring it could be in the best interest of baseball. But having lived through the lean CBS years of the 1960s and early ’70s, they have the perspective to know that downturns happen. That’s not true for any current Yankee fan much younger than 30. “We’ll see how the younger fans deal with adversity,” says Nick.

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